The presidents of two community colleges in Alabama — Yvonne Kennedy, president of Bishop State Community College, in Mobile, and Rick Rogers, president of Shelton State Community College, in Tuscaloosa — resigned amid federal and state investigations into financial scandals at their institutions, according to an article in The Chronicle. Reporter Lyndsey Lewis has the story.
Also see a related item in The Chronicle’s News Blog.
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14 Responses to Two Presidents of CC’s in Alabama Resign
sand6432 - August 29, 2011 at 1:20 pm
One place where consistency may be sacrificed is in complex sentences joined by “and”: when they are relatively short, a comma may be omitted, whereas it should probably always be used when the sentences are long. Of course, editors will differ over what “relatively short” is. — Sandy Thatcher
Trudy Ring - August 29, 2011 at 2:03 pm
One of my pet peeves, consistency-wise, is when writers treat a subject as both singular and plural within the same piece, sometimes even within the same sentence: “The Democratic Party is holding their convention,” “The band is releasing their second album,” etc. It seems like a common-sense thing, but I still have to pound it into people’s heads.
Also, yes, it’s irritating when people want “always or never” rules. I’ve had other copy editors ask me for these, in addition to writers and line editors! Yes, there are some things you should always do, others you should never do, but some situations actually require you to THINK.
mgerber - August 29, 2011 at 2:10 pm
I’d want to err on the side of consistency, if only because careful readers — my favorite kind — tend to notice when it’s lacking, and may well lose confidence in the writer as a result. One of the best justifications for inconsistency, of course, is how a passage sounds to the mind’s ear. As Orwell said in citing several rules of good writing, “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
drosenthal - August 30, 2011 at 8:09 am
Emerson spoke only of a foolish consistency.
carolsaller - August 30, 2011 at 9:36 am
Thanks, Drosenthal—exactly my point. No one who knows that quote would bait a copyeditor in the way that (no kidding) people often do.
David Webb - August 31, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Ha! One of my favorite consistency quotes:
“Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.” — Aldous Huxley
Yes, I am a copy editor.
john_hawkinson - September 1, 2011 at 5:22 pm
It seems worth remembering what we learned from the from the 1998 film “Next Stop Wonderland.” Emerson actually said, “A FOOLISH consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” To me, that’s one of the core elements of copy editing — distinguishing between consistency and foolish consistency. (In the movie, half a dozen people run around quoting different, but incorrect, variants of this Emerson quote. At least from my memory 13 years later, it’s kind of hilarious.)
22108469 - September 2, 2011 at 11:09 am
I would argue that those writers who bait and belittle their copy editors may simply be lacking confidence in their own abilities and thus projecting their unease. A good copy editor is already an invisible ghost, so a writer attempting to diminish the copy editor is engaging in a futile pursuit.
dank48 - September 2, 2011 at 11:47 am
Of course sense has a lot to do with it too. “Willy Nelson performed at the Coliseum last night with both his ex-wives, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson.”
Definitely needs a comma before “and.”
dank48 - September 2, 2011 at 11:50 am
Exactly: the desire for “always” and “never” rules is born of the desire not to have to think. As in the examples, singular and plural get mixed inappropriately. Still, there are collective nouns, especially in British usage: “The firm feel that . . .” or “The Cabinet have stated . . .”
josgirl13 - September 3, 2011 at 7:21 pm
In my multiple roles as writer, editor and copyeditor, I salute you!
Julie Peterson - September 13, 2011 at 9:27 am
I think I’d be floored if any writer I work with started doing something the way I do it without a clear understanding of why I do it and under what circumstances it applies. Yes, I’m very lucky to work with dedicated writers who respect the occasional mystery, but I also make an effort to communicate, and so do they.
(I have, in the past, worked with writers who wouldn’t have understood my explanations — who sometimes literally couldn’t, and who sometimes also “outranked” me — but those folks had no inclination to hypercorrect in my wake, either.)
marcleavitt - November 29, 2011 at 12:18 pm
In Shakespeare’s second sonnet: “When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,” the trope is used to emphasize the decadence of life, as well as the counting aspect.
marcleavitt - January 23, 2012 at 1:17 pm
this is test